BOYS BASKETBALL: Lanphier pulls away from Lincoln in fourth

Last time these two teams met, it came down to some last-second heroics from Springfield Lanphier’s Aaron Powers to give the Lions a 39-36 win at Lober-Nika Gymnasium.With Lincoln’s recent defensive run, including back-to-back games of holding opponents to 30 points, it seemed the Railsplitters might...

Last time these two teams met, it came down to some last-second heroics from Springfield Lanphier’s Aaron Powers to give the Lions a 39-36 win at Lober-Nika Gymnasium.

With Lincoln’s recent defensive run, including back-to-back games of holding opponents to 30 points, it seemed the Railsplitters might be able to rein in the Lions’ offense once again and spoil Lanphier’s attempt at becoming the first Central State Eight Conference team to finish the league season 16-0.

Lincoln outscored the Lions 17-12 in the third quarter to pull within 33-31, but Lanphier started the fourth on a 9-0 run, sprinting to a 51-38 win in the season finale for both teams Friday at Roy S. Anderson Gymnasium.

“It’s a great feeling,” Lanphier coach Chuck Shanklin said of claiming an undefeated CS8 title. “All the credit goes to the kids because they’ve worked hard. They’ve really answered the bell when I’ve challenged them. I couldn’t be more proud of them right now.”

The final AP poll comes out Tuesday and Lanphier hopes to regain the top spot it held before losing 70-59 last Saturday at Lober-Nika Gymnasium. The Lions are 1-1 against Central this season and 1-0 against Manual (No. 4 in Class 3A). Manual and Central split two meetings this season.

The Railsplitters (15-15 overall, 7-9 CS8) forced the tempo early, but Lanphier’s Jaylen Briggity was able to hit two first-quarter 3-pointers in Lanphier’s halfcourt set. Though the Lions didn’t show much willingness to play a halfcourt style for much of this season, Shanklin said Lanphier can play almost as well as when it pushes the ball.

“The thing with Jaylen and T.J. (Davis) is, when they are controlling tempo, we’re a better team,” Shanklin said. “Whether it’s pushing it up the floor or whether it is making good decisions in the halfcourt, that’s what championship teams are made of.”

Lincoln’s Christian Van Hook had 12 of the Railsplitters’ 14 first-half points and finished with 23 in the game. The Lions tried to give Van Hook a different look in the second half than in the first half.

“We tried to make him shoot off the dribble a little more in the second half,” Shanklin said. “We had to make him put it on the deck so he would have to adjust his shot a little bit.”

Lincoln coach Neil Alexander pointed to Lanphier’s 35-20 rebounding edge as one of the key differences in the game. Lanphier used an 18-9 edge in offensive rebounding to create an 18-6 edge in second-chance points.

Page 2 of 2 - “We didn’t rebound well,” he said. “They completely dominated the boards and you have to be able to rebound the ball. We didn’t do a very good job of it.”

Everett Clemons led the Lions with 12 points. Powers finished with 11 points and a game-high four steals, while Davis ended with 10.

Poor shooting doomed the Railsplitters.

In the first half, neither team shot the ball well, with Lanphier holding a 29 to 22 edge in shooting percentage. In the second half, the Lions solved its shooting woes by making 55 percent (12 of 22) of their shots. While the Railsplitters improved with a 44 percent shooting effort (7 of 16) in the second half, it wasn’t enough.

“Their defense, give them credit. They made us rush them (shots),” Alexander said. “Their defense took us out of our offense.”